Hey there. So, I travelled to China a few months back (from mid-March to mid-April):

1. You can either buy a sim card or use roaming, but it's gonna be very expensive. Suggest you to buy sim card over there, saves you lots of hassle.
2. Use VPN. Install and configure them before you travel to China. I subscribed to ExpressVPN. They're quite OK, but there are a few days that I can't get the VPN working at all. For backup, get your Wechat ready before you fly to China.
3. Alipay. Download and try to configure them before you travel to China. Unfortunately, I can't link any of my bank cards (debit, credit or pre-paid) to Alipay. I read that Alipay recently decided not to support overseas bank. So, what I did was I gave my Chinese colleague (I was on business trip) some cash and ask them to transfer the money to my Alipay (It's quite a hassle as not many ppl want to accept cash). But you can try to link your card first, if you have those Union Pay card, I think you probably can link them. Once you are there, buy a sim card and link your new mobile number to your Alipay.

This post has been edited by Harfan: Jun 12 2023, 09:39 AM

Oh yea, forgot about that. I went there for business trip. So, I brought my local chinese colleague to buy the sim card and I think I used my hotel address. Make sure to bring your passport for registration.